5th December, 2011
December 3, 2011
The 16th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa opened today at the Millennium Conference Centre in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with a call by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for greater collaboration between African governments and their partners in order to increase access to prevention, treatment and care services in Africa.
In his keynote address at the colourful opening ceremony, which was attended by former US President George Bush, Prime Minister Zenawi said there was urgent need for innovative, Africa-led initiatives in the fight against HIV in order for the continent to truly own the problem and develop its own solutions, scale them up and sustain them.
“AIDS has killed millions of people in Africa and left millions of children orphaned. But we have made good progress in prevention and treatment over the past 10 years. For example, new HIV infections have declined by 25 percent in many African countries, including Ethiopia. But there is still a lot to be done. PMTCT coverage is still low, there is low access to preventive services for youth, and we still need to do a lot more towards achieving universal access to treatment,” said the Prime Minister.
He added: “I hope that this conference will enhance the work in HIV prevention, treatment and care through exchange of innovative and best practices to improve HIV interventions in Africa.”
The Prime Minister thanked former President Bush for his push to increasing funding for HIV initiatives in Africa through PEPFAR, which had helped to save thousands of lives through treatment and prevention programmes, and also thanked the current American administration for upholding the programme.
Speaking at the opening, UNAIDS Executive Director Mr Michel Sidibe said the 16th ICASA conference was an important forum for taking stock of what has been happening in Africa over the past 30 years, since the discovery of the first case of AIDS.
Said Sidibe: “This is a time to remember the 24 million Africans who have already lost their lives to the epidemic. It is a time to show solidarity with the 34 million people living with HIV around the world. It is also time to celebrate our success in providing treatment and the success of our prevention programmes. More than 6.8 million people are on treatment in Africa today, compared with 50,000 about 10 years ago.”
He noted that prevention programmes are working because 32 African countries have been able to stabilise the epidemic while 22 have reduced new infections by 25 percent. He cited the case of South Africa, which had “moved from inertia to build one of the biggest HIV programmes in Africa”, investing more than 1.3 billion dollars.
Mr Sidibe said that with the decline of international funding for HIV programmes, Africa needs to find ways to sustain the momentum it has created by increasing domestic and private funding.
“Africa is at a make it or break it stage,” he added. “There are nine million people in need of treatment. It is ethically wrong and unacceptable for clinics to turn away patients. We are told there can be a 96 per cent reduction in new infections through early treatment. There may be no money because of the global economic situation, but if we don’t pay now, we’ll have to pay forever.”
He advised African governments to pursue innovation, and solutions that provide shared value and shared responsibility with private investors and other partners, before Africa loses more people to HIV.
The need for more private public partnerships to find solutions for HIV and other health issues was echoed by former President Bush. He further emphasised the importance of more funding to prevent and treat cervical and breast cancers, which are killing thousands of women every year, and called for private bodies and governments to come together to fight these diseases.
The conference runs from December 4-8, and is attended by 10,000 delegates from all over the world. AMREF has a large presence at the conference, with 25 participants, nine poster presentations and two oral presentations. The Director General, Dr Teguest Guerma, is chairing a panel discussion on HIV and bio-medical research in Africa on Wednesday. AMREF also has an exhibition stand at the conference, where information about AMREF’s work is on display.
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